Romania travel guide

Prowl through our Romania travel guide like a grey wolf stalking its prey within the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and you'll reveal there's much more to Transylvania and the surrounding regions than you might have first thought.

Romania travel guide

2 minute summary

Rural Romania is perhaps the only place in Europe where a bicycle can often be the speediest form of transport, and where friendly locals offer free tots of home-made hooch. When the Iron Curtain lifted, it revealed an undiscovered country of sturdy peaks, alpine plateaux, vast coastal wetlands and primeval woods roamed by bear, wolf and lynx. Add rustic villages fuelled by timeless tradition and brightly-hued medieval cities infused by myth.

But Romania doesn’t preserve its roots in aspic – they’re as innate as breathing. People travel by horse-drawn cart, produce their own food (and booze) and carve wood into everything from alpine horns to churches because they see no need to do otherwise, just because it's the 21st century rather than the 12th when Saxon settlers arrived. Today, the nation's natural splendour backdrops a rich cultural infusion of Saxon, Hungarian and Roma influences. Our Romania travel guide reveals a country where you can find life as sustainable – and sustaining - as life can be.

Hello.If you'd like to chat about Romania or need help finding a holiday to suit you we're very happy to help.Rosy & team.

Slow living

Life moves at a human pace here. Horsepower often still means the equine sort, as locals clop around in horse-drawn carts or winter sleighs, happy to carry visitors who aren’t enjoying walking or cycling along solitary back roads. Hay is hand cut with slowly swooshing scythes, cloth is quietly woven, wood carefully carved. You get there in the end.

Caves

Romania has over 12,000 caves (pestera). But forget dark dank holes – these are places of wonder. Names offer clues. Pestera cu Oase (Cave of Bones) gave up Europe’s oldest-known human fossil (a 35,000-year-old jawbone). The magnificent galleries of Bear Cave offered skeletons of the extinct cave bear. The Ice Cave glints with Europe’s largest cave glacier. Size important? Then book a tour of the 45km-long Wind Cave, Romania’s largest.

Rated

Wildlife

Romania’s mosaic of unspoilt landscape hosts over 33,000 species including Europe’s highest concentration of large carnivores – wolves plus rare Eurasian lynx and wildcat as well as over 5000 bears. But don’t forget caves with Europe’s biggest bat colonies, woodland birds including rare eagles and owls, plus 300 species of water bird in the Danube Delta.

Colourful history

Evocative myth and history are Romania's forte, from the chilling story of Dracula inspiration Vlad Tepes to magical Dacian stone circles erected long before Christ. In between, Greeks, Romans and Saxons battled over a land of soaring mountains and fertile plains. Colourful towns out of fairytale (literally for some) dot the map, watched over by lonely castles and fortified churches. Romania is a cultural mélange too, a colourful mix of Saxon-German, Hungarian and Roma.

Overrated

Dracula

Marketing lures gullible types to places like “Dracula's Castle” near Brasov with yarns about the infamous blood-sucking Count. Don’t bite. Dracula was a fictional character created by Bram Stoker in 1897. And his oft-cited historical model – 15th century aristocrat Vlad Draculea (commonly called Vlad Tepes - Vlad the Impaler) skewered his foes in Wallachia not Transylvania.

Modernisation

Once-beautiful historic Romanian cities were blighted by brutalist architectural carbuncles in the post-war decades of communist rule. EU accession in 2007, meanwhile, has seen a dash for modernity that risks further eroding the former architectural charms of cities like Bucharest – a capital whose tree-lined boulevards and Belle Époque architecture once earned comparison to Paris.

Dogs

Vast numbers of stray dogs roam Romania, and should be regarded with real caution. Many have gone feral, living in packs that have attacked and seriously injured people. And unlike the UK, dog bites in Romania involve a risk of rabies. Romanians are very friendly – don't assume the dogs are.

Tranfagarasan Road

The fact those petrol-head plonkers at Top Gear once voted this the world’s best road could make it seem a good thing. But as you spew lead speeding through breathtaking mountain scenery, spare a thought for the dozens of forced labourers who died trying to hastily build what was vile dictator Nikolai Ceasescu’s pet project of the 1970s.

Food, shopping & people

Travel like a local on your Romania holiday

Eating & drinking in Romania

Romanian meals often begin with a soup – often given delicious piquancy with a lacing of garlic, vinegar or sour cream.

Romania is the world's 9th biggest wine maker– and lots of it is excellent!

Street eats are popular, with favourites including covrigi (hot pretzels sprinkled with salt or sesame/poppy seeds), placinte (curd cheese or fruit-stuffed savoury or sweet pastries) and mici (grilled rolls of spiced minced pork or beef, served with mustard).

The castle truly linked to Dracula-inspiration Vlad Tepes is the ruined Polenari Citadel near Curtea de Arges in Wallachia.

People & language

While Romanian is the official national language, some of the mountain regions are home to the country's sizeable ethnic Hungarian population so they may well speak Hungarian! But learning even a few basic phrases in Romanian will not only win you friends for effort but may also result in speedier service in restaurants, which can be notoriously slow and indifferent.

Gifts & shopping

Bucharest Monopoly – the classic board game with a Romanian twist! You'll find it in shops all over the capital for around £12.

Sponsor a bear at the Libearty Sanctuary for 60 euros for one year - all proceeds go towards the sanctuary

Locally-made ceramics and linen tablecloths or shawls are wonderful souvenirs to buy for just a few pounds in rural areas – helping to keep handicraft traditions alive.

Palinca - double-distilled plum schnapps – is the national drink, and the best stuff is widely made at home! To buy in a shop, reckon on £5 for a brand like Palinca de Salaj.

Fast facts

Local legend claims that after the Pied Piper magicked away the children of Hamelin, he reappeared with them in Brasov.

How much does it cost?

Entry and tour at Libearty Bear Sanctuary – £1.60

Bottle of good Romanian wine - £3

Bottle of decent palinca - £5

Three-course meal in mid-range restaurant – £10

InterCity train from Bucharest to Brasov - £10

Hand-woven wool carpets - £50/m2

A brief history of Romania

Though Romania's ties with classical Thrace, Greece and Rome date back 2500 years, its historic sense of self formed in medieval times when it became a European bastion against Eastern invaders. This created today's patriotic narrative of Saxon settlers battling Mongols, Tartars and Turks from atmospheric castle eyries, while holy types prayed for victory inside fortified monasteries. To Romanians, 15th century aristocrat Vlad Tepes – reputed inspiration for Bram Stoker's mythical Dracula thanks to his penchant for mass impaling of foes – is a national hero rather than someone with a poor grasp of the Geneva Convention.Read more ▼

Today's Romania is still reinventing itself after oppressive Communist rule running from the end of WW2 to the 1989 uprising that overthrew dictator Nicolae Ceasescu. His quarter-century megalomaniac reign saw terrifying insanity become part of life. To boost the birthrate, a tax was imposed on workers which docked wages until they had children. Torture was widely used by government agents, while even owning a typewriter was punishable by death. A 1980s urbanisation program destroyed around 8,000 villages. Unsurprisingly, Romania's eventual revolt was carried out with an intensity unseen elsewhere as the Iron Curtain crumbled - only here did the former ruler end up being executed.

Romania's eventual accession to the EU in 2007 was delayed by worries over corruption but the past few years have seen wide social changes and confident moves towards welcome European integration. Today, you will find a country with cosmopolitan cities, unspoilt countryside and friendly people keen to welcome a new wave of touristic invaders.